How to Fix ‘Another Update in Process’ Error in WordPress

People often make the mistake of considering WordPress as merely a blogging platform. Although that used to be accurate in the past, WordPress has grown throughout the years into a varied and flexible content management system. While it is still possible to use WordPress to create a simple blog, it now offers fully functional WordPress website design and mobile applications.

Because WordPress is an open source community system, it is maintained by a huge group of volunteers. The majority of them are WordPress consultants with an eager interest in developing and supporting WordPress. Any individual can contribute to WordPress by answering support questions, writing patches and plugins, designing themes, translating WordPress and updating dated documentation.

image source: wpbeginner

While WordPress is easy to use, some standard WordPress errors can occur and make you panic. The good news is that the WordPress error you see on your site is most likely already reported and resolved by someone else. Make sure you have a backup of your WordPress site before trying to fix any errors.

Perhaps one of the most confusing WordPress errors that a beginner may come across is the “Another update currently in process” error.

If you see this error, it will prevent you from updating WordPress. Typically, it should go away automatically, but if it doesn’t, there is more that one solution already developed.

Why does ‘Another Update in Process’ error Occur?

When a primary WordPress update is already running in the background, and a user tries to launch another update, this error will occur. The reason behind this error is that during a core update, WordPress sets an involuntary update lock option in the database to prevent you from running more than one update on your website.

While this error is set to disappear automatically in 15 minutes or when the updates are done, sometimes it can get stuck on this error. There is an option to manually reset it if you don’t want to wait out the 15 minutes.

How to fix “Another Update in Process” error.

To quickly get rid of this error message, you need to delete the core_updater lock option from your WordPress database. There are two different approaches to do this, and you can choose whichever one works for you.

Method 1: Use the “Fix Another Update In Progress” Plugin

Install and activate the plugin

Step 1: In the WordPress Admin area (dashboard), visit Plugins » Add New

Step 2: In the search bar, type “Fix Another Update In Progress.”

Step 3: On the plugin, click “Install Now” and “Activate” once the installation is done.

image source: wpbeginner

After activation, you’ll want to visit Settings » Fix Another Update In Progress. If the updates on your website are locked, there will be a message with an option to fix it. Simply click on ‘Fix WordPress Update Lock’ button to proceed. The WordPress core update lock option will then be deleted from your database followed by a success message.

Method 2: Fix “Another Update In Progress” Manually

This method requires you to use phpMyAdmin to run a query in your WordPress database directly.

Step 1: Visit the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. Under the database section, click on the phpMyAdmin icon.

Step 2: Select your WordPress database in phpMyAdmin. This will show you all the tables inside your WordPress database.

Step 3: Click on the Browse button next to the WordPress options table (wp_options). This will show you all the rows inside the options table.

Step 4: Locate the line with the word ‘core_updater.lock’ and click the delete button next to it.

PhpMyAdmin will now remove the row from your WordPress database. Once you’ve done this, you can go back to your WordPress website and continue updating your WordPress website.

WordPress is without a doubt the best software for website design. As with any other software program, there will be errors that occur from time to time. The difference comes in with the WordPress community, the people that are passionate about maintaining the software. There isn’t an error that hasn’t been solved already, and a solution can be found with a quick google search.

Author Bio:

David Giltner is a freelance content writer for selected businesses in different niches such as website developers in cape town, South Africa and offers his web design skills as an extra.

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Posted by Deelip Kushwaha

Deelip Kushwaha is a adwords and analytics certified, Who helps online businesses to perform better on the web with best solutions and advice. He is also editor at “Durgtech.com”. You can follow me on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn